Mets chart Santana's training camp

Monday

Feb 18, 2013 at 2:00 AM

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — On a bullpen mound 938 miles from the spot where he threw his last pitch,

Mike Kerwick

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — On a bullpen mound 938 miles from the spot where he threw his last pitch, Johan Santana tugged open the curtains. He did not reveal much Sunday, allowing only a 20-pitch slit of light to slip through, but enough to show his left arm still possesses the chops to survive a short workout.

"My first time in a while," Santana said after his inaugural bullpen session of spring training, "but it was fine. I don't think it was my best or anything, but it's Day One. You've got to get started at some point, and today was a beginning for me."

A year ago, Santana was making his first serious pitch to rejoin the rotation since he went in for shoulder surgery Sept. 14, 2010. Mets manager Terry Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen spent seven weeks giving each Santana session the microscope treatment.

This time around he's not dealing with a broken wing. He has been nagged by a creaky back. He has been pestered by a stubborn ankle. But the Mets don't seem quite so concerned about his arm — the same arm that threw the only no-hitter in franchise history just eight months ago.

Santana stood on the far mound, his forearms exposed, staring into the glove of bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello.

"Just relax," Santana told Racaniello before taking the hill.

The session was over in a blink.

Santana got in his work, then shook Racaniello's hand before disappearing to a separate area of the complex.

"I said, 'How'd you feel?' " Collins said. "He said, 'Fine.' Just a little too cold for him (Sunday), which I totally understand. First day you throw off the mound and (it's) 40 degrees. It's not that comfortable."

Chilly temps aside, Santana and Collins were pleased with the portrait. The course they're charting this preseason is nothing like the intricate set of blueprints they drew up last spring.

"You have to get ready for games," Santana said. "That's for sure. But I'm not rehabbing or anything, where you have a whole plan and I was working since December in the past. This time is different. You're just trying to get ready for games in spring training that will take us all the way to the season."

Santana is dealing with the same garden variety set of nerves that every pitcher — good, bad or mediocre — confronts.

"After a while not throwing off the mound, you don't know what to expect," Santana said. "You don't know your mechanics and everything. You don't want to bounce the first one."